


and time will listen

by revoleotion



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, I mean it, Kidnapping, M/M, Major Character Death isn't permanent, The Author Regrets Nothing, the reaper's cave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27776041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revoleotion/pseuds/revoleotion
Summary: The longer the silence went on, the less the caller felt like Lord Diavolo. No, this was something else. A threat Barbatos had been pushed towards without a warning.Without a warning. The future hadn’t warned him about this. The thought fully shook him awake, made his hand grip the D.D.D. tighter until he heard the plastic crack underneath his fingers. Barbatos inhaled and released his death-grip.“Well, that was quick,” a voice said.---alternatively: Diavolo gets kidnapped and Barbatos sets hell on fire to save him
Relationships: Barbatos & Diavolo (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Diavolo/Lucifer (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	and time will listen

**Author's Note:**

> I want to warn you again, this one is HEAVY. I think it may be the worst thing I've ever done. So please be careful with this. 
> 
> in other news, I am obsessed with their friendship now and I will write more when I have the time. Or when I don't have the time.

The call woke him up, but Barbatos still didn’t feel fully _awake_ yet when he picked up his D.D.D. and pressed it to his ear. Sleep lingered on his skin, on his eyelids, begged him to come back, to trade consciousness against blissful ignorance. He ignored it. For a couple of seconds, he couldn’t hear anything, apart from his own breaths and the static sound of a call being transferred. He was not going to speak first, not if he got a call from Lord Diavolo in the middle of the night. Lord Diavolo always spoke first. He couldn’t contain himself most of the time, his enthusiastic greeting would get cut off, like the demon prince couldn’t wait to say it, so he started talking even before Barbatos could pick up.

It was also a matter of politeness, Barbatos assumed, part of their dynamic, to be the patient one, the one receiving orders, the one who waited in the line until Diavolo blurted out his newest request or talked about his encounter with pickles in restaurants.

The longer the silence went on, the less the caller felt like Lord Diavolo. No, this was something else. A threat Barbatos had been pushed towards without a warning.

Without a warning. The future hadn’t warned him about this. The thought fully shook him awake, made his hand grip the D.D.D. tighter until he heard the plastic crack underneath his fingers. Barbatos inhaled and released his death-grip.

“Well, that was quick,” a voice said.

For someone who knew everything, not recognizing a voice was like falling. Barbatos felt his stomach turn into a cluster of pain, time swirled into an unrecognizable fog and it took him all his willpower not to hang up. Escapism. Not his favorite coping method, in fact, it was one he rarely explored.

No, reality had presented him with this situation and Barbatos was going to live through it.

“I’m going to make this quick,” the voice said. It had a surreal touch to it, and it didn’t occur to Barbatos once to classify the caller as a demon, not even as a human.

“Judging by how quick you answered the call, you must love the owner of this D.D.D. very much,” it said. It chuckled, sending a shockwave through Barbatos’ body that made his tail flinch and curl next to him. He willed himself to relax and pressed the D.D.D. tighter to his ear.

“May I speak to him?” he asked, his voice strange to him. Of course, he was not going to slip up, his panic was something private, a luxury hidden in the back of his head.

“It’s funny that you ask.”

And even though the caller clearly played for time, stretched the conversation out until it became unbearable to stay still, even for someone so used to it, the seconds continued swirling. The room faded until there was nothing left apart from Barbatos, the silk sheets covering his body, the D.D.D. And maybe those things didn’t matter either, the only thing he truly felt, the only truly steady variable in this problem was the consistent static. The D.D.D.’s life signal, wrapping itself around Barbatos’ head, crawling inside his ears and filling out every inch of his body. He wondered if he was having a panic attack without realizing it.

“But he doesn’t want to speak to you, doesn’t he? Promised me that he was not going to talk if I called you- which I think is very hypocritical considering how many times he screamed your name while I was…” The voice stopped, but Barbatos could tell that it was a deliberate choice. The caller wanted him to ask.

He took another deep breath.

“My Lord,” he said, his voice on the edge of losing his professionalism. “It’s alright.”

He heard something in the background, a soft exhale, and even though he couldn’t see Lord Diavolo, he could guess his expression, the way his eyes lit up when Barbatos mentioned his name.

“Alright?” the voice echoed. “Who are you to say that?”

Barbatos didn’t bother with a reply. Time had stopped, paused, just for him, to allow him to take a look at all the possible outcomes in this situation. But he couldn’t see anything.

“Lord Diavolo,” he started again. This time the shaking took over his voice and butchered the name he held so dear. “It’s alright, please don’t worry. Be strong.”

He had said this to Lord Diavolo, a long time ago, when he had confessed to having no idea how to rule over the Devildom.

_If it were possible, I’d make you King instead, Diavolo had told him, a sad smile on his face that not even Lucifer got to see. Barbatos had looked at him, had taken in every inch of his face until he had been convinced that nothing could ever make him forget how Diavolo looked like._

_I couldn’t, Barbatos had said._

_Because you don’t take a side? Diavolo had asked._

_Because you will be a better King than I ever could, Barbatos had replied. Diavolo had blushed at this, like he hadn’t expected this, even though it had not been the first time Barbatos had stated this opinion._

_Of course, Diavolo had muttered to himself at that point, you know the future. You probably know how this is going to end, anyway._

_I can never be sure of the future but I can be sure of you, Barbatos had told him. He hadn’t looked his prince into the face, all of sudden it had felt inappropriate. He had disliked talking about the future, he still did, but he felt like if there were a demon he could trust with this, it would be Diavolo._

_Be strong, he had added._

_I will, Diavolo had said, a smile breaking through his serious expression, tearing up the moment, pushing time out of its hibernation._

He said the same thing now.

“I will.”

To Barbatos it felt like a code, confirmation that Lord Diavolo knew and remembered, that he once again put his faith into Barbatos’ hands but also recognized his own strength, his ability to get through this.

The voice spoke up again.

“Touching. Hurry up, Barbatos, maybe, if you’re fast enough, you can hear him screaming for you again.”

It broke something inside him, to hear his name being so carelessly used by someone who had no right to do it. If the caller attempted to say Lord Diavolo’s name, if it ruined the melody attached to it, the way the name fit into one’s mouth just right when using the correct title… there’d no telling what Barbatos would do.

“It’s getting darker,” Lord Diavolo said. His voice was so weak that Barbatos had troubles understanding him. The unknown voice hissed, furious because the demon prince had been able to give away such valuable information.

It was now obvious where Lord Diavolo was.

And then Barbatos heard it. A sound, quiet yet so distinct that its meaning stumbled into place inside his brain without further explanation. The sound of a candle being blown out.

The call got interrupted, pulled from his fingers, the static vanished and all of sudden Barbatos became aware of his surroundings again. At some point during the conversation he must’ve gotten up, the cold floor burned his feet and the chill crept further up his legs until his entire body was shaking. In the back of his mind, a voice remembered him to breathe.

Barbatos took a deep breath, counted to ten and only exhaled when his lungs threatened to burst. He had to think.

He couldn’t think.

Failure, he thought, and took the word all in, let the consequences of it run through his head. He brought the D.D.D. closer to his chest, sunk to the floor, shaking fingers, shaking shoulders, no tears, no sound, just his body reacting to the single word that filled up his entire brain.

Lucifer found him, at least the next thing he remembered was the Avatar of Pride standing in front of him and yelling his name. Barbatos lifted his head and forced his eyes to focus on the demon’s face.

“… know where he is?” Lucifer asked.

A single tear escaped Barbatos’ eye. He put a hand up to his face and caught it with his finger, then looked down on it like had no idea where it came from.

“Gone,” he heard himself saying. “His candle went out.”

Lucifer paled and for a fleeting moment Barbatos could see the unfiltered, pure wrath of an angel peeking through his features. The gem on his forehead flashed up, its dark glow catching Barbatos’ attention and hypnotizing him just enough. For a moment, their eyes met, the former angel staring down on him in all his former glory.

“How do you know? It can’t be. This can’t be true. Why weren’t you there to prevent it? This is your fault-”

Lucifer fell silent, his angry expression flickered and turned into fear. It was the first time Barbatos saw Lucifer afraid of him and he didn’t want to imagine how his face had to look like for this to happen. He wasn’t shaking anymore. Something had replaced the feeling of dread, the helplessness. Something was burning inside him and Barbatos feared that if he allowed it to reach the surface, hell was going to burn with him.

Lucifer reached for his shoulder but Barbatos flinched away from him, pushed himself up and straightened his robe. It felt surreal how tiny details still mattered to him, how his cheeks heated up at the thought of someone seeing him in his sleeping wear.

“He can’t be gone,” Lucifer said. It sounded like a plea now, his anger had vanished completely. He seemed so small, insignificant.

Barbatos’ heart broke again. He turned to his closet, reached for a new set of clothing and put it down on his bed. Lucifer must’ve understood the hint but he still refused to leave.

“I’m going to get him,” Barbatos informed the demon. He felt Lucifer’s intense glare on him but refused to look at him. Seeing Lucifer’s obvious pain and loss made him wonder if he was allowed to feel the same, if he was supposed to feel more. If he looked at Lucifer now, he’d start crying.

He was unable to be who he needed to be. He had failed.

He had not been fast enough.

Lucifer left, right when Barbatos considered getting dressed in front of him. He couldn’t lose any more time – no, that wasn’t true. Time had never mattered less. What mattered was that he felt like the center of the universe had just ceased to exist. What was time compared against the one thing the universe depended on?

Or maybe it was just Barbatos’ world that had collapsed, maybe he’d wake up in the morning and found out that nothing had changed, that the bigger picture still looked the same without Diavolo.

Barbatos decided that he didn’t care about the world half as much as he cared about Diavolo.

He didn’t know when this had changed. It felt like it had always been that way.

He wasn’t as selfless as he had thought he was.

* * *

He found him exactly where he thought he would. The reaper’s cave was no true obstacle to him. Barbatos went through the challenges, rooms, in the blink of an eye. It was only when he reached the last room, dimly lit by hundreds, thousands, millions of candles, that he stopped. He didn’t want to see. Seeing this would make it true.

Barbatos was met with a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time. Back then, millennia ago, he had felt like he owed Diavolo, like all his actions had to be born out of the desire to repay a debt. Diavolo had joked about this, then had realized that Barbatos was serious about it. They had talked about it and came to the conclusion that Barbatos didn’t owe him anything and that he was free to go whenever he wanted. And he had believed it, for the most part. Barbatos hadn’t felt the guilt in a long time. His actions were no longer driven by the need to make up for something.

This one was.

And yet nothing was going to be changed by Barbatos discovering Diavolo’s body.

Unless.

Unless he decided that in order to restore the only happy ending Barbatos had ever experienced in his life, he had to do the one thing he had sworn to never do.

Diavolo’s skin had turned into an unhealthy shade of grey, his eyes were open, a smile frozen on his face, like he considered even death funny. Barbatos stopped in front of him, taking in every inch of his face. He was convinced that he’d never forget how the demon looked like in death.

Seeing him like this was enough to set the fire free.

Barbatos called time to his aid. He closed his eyes when it joined him, became part of him, embraced him just to be tamed by him. Time belonged to him, listened to him, happily awaited his orders.

Barbatos ordered destruction.

* * *

And then he’s back. He’s shaking, his eyes need a while to find focus while reality constructs around him again. He finds himself standing in Lord Diavolo’s study, right when they said Goodnight to each other, right before Lord Diavolo left and never returned to the castle. Barbatos has to grab the back of an armchair to keep his balance. The nausea is worse than usual, and he feels like he deserves it, he deserves it for rewriting the universe in a way he has never dared before. (A selfish way too. All because he couldn’t imagine a world without Lord Diavolo. All because he had convinced himself that the Devildom was going to fall without him.)

“… Barbatos?”

He lifts his head and has to hold himself together not to burst into tears at the sight of the demon prince.

“My Lord…” he starts at the same time Lord Diavolo asks, “Are you alright?”

He blinks.

“Yes, My Lord. I’m feeling a little…” Before Barbatos can finish the white lie he hasn’t exactly thought about until now, he feels a hand on his arm. He’s alive. Lord Diavolo is alive. Because this is a reality Barbatos wrote for him, a second chance, where the stranger can never harm him because it simply doesn’t exist.

He doesn’t regret it, he thinks, as he closes his eyes for a moment and takes a couple of deep breaths.

“Will you be fine on your own if I go out? I can order Lucifer to watch you, he’s going to enjoy that even though he’s not going to show it, of course…”

Barbatos opens his eyes again, smiles and shakes his head.

Lord Diavolo frowns.

“You won’t be fine?” he asks.

“I’d like to watch that movie with you,” Barbatos says. Lord Diavolo looks at him like it’s the first time he ever sees him, and perhaps he has every right to do this, after all this hint was not very subtle. He is too exhausted to care.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” Lord Diavolo asks.

This is it, Barbatos thinks. But instead of suspecting something, Lord Diavolo grins at him.

“You really want to watch another Star Wars movie with me? You will regret this.”

“I do not think so, My Lord.”

“Nu-uh. You know the rules.”

Barbatos nods. “I do not think so,” he corrects himself.

Diavolo – no “Lord” during movie nights – guides him outside the study, which is nice because Barbatos would rather not faint in front of him right now. Diavolo knows how to deal with Lucifer’s migraines, he seems to have slipped into that caretaking mode now too. Barbatos doesn’t mind. He’s so happy to see him that he doesn’t care about anything else.

He lets the new reality happen to him.

In the end, he falls asleep next to Diavolo five minutes into the movie, his head on the man’s shoulder. He doesn’t wake up to a phone call this night but to Diavolo’s attempts to tuck him in on the sofa. When he opens his eyes and blinks, sleep trying to lure him back in, he notices a silhouette standing next to Diavolo.

“Thank you,” Lucifer says, like he isn’t sure what he’s thanking him for.

Barbatos smiles.


End file.
